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Musai-class
The Musai-class is a class of light cruiser in the Universal Century timeline. It was the first warship designed to carry mobile suits for the Zeon, and had a "Komusai" landing capsule that could carry additional mobile suits. There were several models of the Musai-class produced during the war. It was first featured in the anime Mobile Suit Gundam. Technology & Combat Characteristics The Musai-class was the Principality of Zeon space force's light cruiser, serving as the primary combat unit in ship-to-ship combat. Its closest contemporary in the Earth Federation Forces was the Salamis-class. It was designed at the same time as the Principality of Zeon's mobile suit development program, and as such the Musai was built from the ground up to support mobile suits. It was secretly developed as the Arcana-class civilian transport ship, operated by LunarLine in the year 0076, which was designed for military use with a war of independence in mind. which shares Musai's contour (lacking the cannons) and operated "upside down". With the outbreak of war, it was deployed on the front lines in this remodeled form. The Musai-class features a hangar system designed to carry and maintain 4 of the early Zaku mobile suits. Two more additional mobile suits could be kept in the hangar of the Komusai shuttle, giving the Musai six mobile suits to use in combat. Using the Komusai pod bays to carry operational mobile suits (rather than for their initial purpose of carrying the mobile suits to the surface of the Earth) brought the mobile suit carrying capacity of the Musai up to the same standard as the much larger EFSF ''Pegasus''-class assault carrier. The standard Musai had three mobile suit catapults mounted on the upper port, upper starboard and lower faces of its hexagonal mobile suit hangar. Musai-class cruisers were not designed for long term independent operation. To overcome this short-coming the Principality of Zeon used the Papua-class and later the Pazock-class logistical fleet to resupply Musai out in the field, along with any other Zeon ship or base. In combat, after fielding the mobile suits the Musai would engage enemy ships with powerful double-barreled mega particle cannons, weapons that had more than enough punch to penetrate the armor of any of the Earth Federation's warships. Because the Musai's generator required several minutes to compress the mega particles needed for each shot, the cannons mostly remained silent during combat. The Musai's design compensates for this lack by incorporating 12 missile launchers, 2 large missile launchers and 10 small missile launchers. Unfortunately, the original Musai-class ships had one major flaw: they lacked any type of Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Mobile Suit defense systems. While a seemingly unimportant and ignorable issue at first, this flaw would return to haunt the Zeon in the latter half of the One Year War, when the Federal Forces deployed their own mobile suits. Armaments ;*2-barrel Beam Cannon :The Musai-class light cruiser is equipped with three 2-barrel main gun turrets. These were the primary weapons of the Musai-class, possessing the greatest amount of power per shot. However due to the high energy demands of the cannons it took the generator several minutes to collect the energy for a single shot. Due to their position, these turrets are only able to aim in a 180 degree in front of the Musai, and unable to aim downward. However, it can focus all six cannons on single target. ;*Large Missile Launcher :The Musai-class light cruiser is equipped with two large missile launcher. These launchers served as the Musai's secondary weapons, being second in strength to the cannons. ;*Small Missile Launcher :The Musai-class light cruiser is equipped with ten small missile launcher. These tertiary weapons are the weakest among the Musai's arsenal, however because of their high number and the feasibility of storing larger numbers of smaller missiles these are the weapons that could be used most frequently. Special Equipment & Features ;*''Komusai'' Shuttle :Each Musai-class had a specialized dock that allowed them to carry a single Komusai shuttle that could be used to carry men and equipment down to Earth. These Komusai shuttles were often pressed into service as secondary hangars, increasing the number of mobile suits a Musai could carry by two. ;*External Fuel Tank :To extend operating time, the Musai-class can be fitted with up to two external fuel tanks, each located below the mobile suit hangar. History The Musai-class light cruiser would have been introduced sometime between U.C. 0075 and U.C. 0079, the time period when Zeon first introduced mobile suits. These light cruiser would quickly replace the more heavily armed Chivvay-class as Zeon's primary warship in space. During the One Year War the Musai would see action in virtually every battle and combat action until Zeon began experimenting with possible replacements such as the Zanzibar-class. Char Aznable commanded a modified Musai I with a helmet-shaped command bridge, named the Falmer. During the battle of Loum, Admiral Dozle commanded the fleet from the heavily modified fleet command cruiser Valkyrie. Towards the end of the One Year War, due to changing dynamics brought by Federation mobile suits, the Musai had to be reorganized, and the Zeon engineers remodeled the three-turret based cruisers into a two-turret model. This was due to the fact that the Zeon forces were mostly now using the far more efficient MS-09R Rick Dom mobile suit. This caused a problem though for the standard Musai model; the Rick Doms were far bulkier, making it impossible to fit three of the units inside the already cramped hangar. By remodeling the hangar and removing one of the mega beam cannon turrets, the hangar could hold two of the new "heavy" type Dom mobile suit units, while the Komusai could hold one of the "heavy" type mobile suits. However, the two turret models could also now hold four "standard" type Zaku IIs. Despite not being able to carry the Rick Dom mobile suits, this didn't cancel the three-turret variant as they still continued service until the end of the war at A Baoa Qu. By U.C. 0087, most of the surviving original Musai-Class Light Cruisers had been upgraded into the ''Musai Kai''-Class Light Cruisers by the Zeon forces at the mobile asteroid Axis. During the events in The Last Sun, some original Musais were retained by the Zeon Remnants and would seen action right up to U.C. 0096. Fate The Musai''s of all variants acquitted themselves well in the One Year War and afterward during Operation Stardust. Examples of the ''Musai continued to fly in the postwar Republic of Zeon fleet until Zeon rejoined the Earth Federation in U.C. 0099. Afterward, all remaining ships were mothballed in U.C. 0100 and were sold and scrapped after that, with the last ship leaving for the breakers by U.C. 0120. Variants ;*Musai-class Late Production Type ;*Musai-class Final Production Type ;*Musai Kai-class See also *''Endra''-class *''Musaka''-class *Magna-Musai *Gundamusai Gallery Musai-back.jpg|Musai (0079 version): rear view musai alt collor.jpg|Musai (0079 version): alternate color falmel.jpg|Char's Musai (Falmel): front profile ship_musai_a.gif|Char's Musai (Falmel): front profile Musai-igloo.png|Musai-class cruiser as featured in Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO musai-igloo_4.jpg|MS IGLOO Lineart (Above) musai-igloo_3.jpg|MS IGLOO Lineart (Below) musai-igloo_5.jpg|MS IGLOO Lineart (Side) musai-igloo_6.jpg|MS IGLOO Lineart (Rear) Musai Class Early Production Type `Iwo Jima`.jpg|Musai Class Early Production Type `Iwo Jima` Dozle`s Custom Musai Class Tactical Command Ship ` Valkyrie`.jpg|Dozle`s Custom Musai Class Tactical Command Ship `Valkyrie` Gunpla OldMusai.jpg|1/1200 Original Musai Cruiser (1980): box art Gunpla_1-1200_CharMusai_box.jpg|1/1200 Original Char's Musai (Falmel) Cruiser (1981): box art EX-Musai.jpg|1/1700 EX Model Musai (2004): box art GC Musai.jpg|1/400 Gundam Collection Musai (2006): box art Action Figures CFSP_Valkyrie_p01_front.jpg|Cosmo Fleet Special (CFSP) Musai Reform Type "Valkyrie" command ship (2016): package front view CFSP_Valkyrie_p02_sample.jpg|CFSP Musai Reform Type "Valkyrie" command ship (2016): product sample CFSP_Valkyrie_p03_sample_Komusai.jpg|CFSP Musai Reform Type "Valkyrie" command ship (2016): product sample with Komusai reentry capsule (left) Notes and Trivia *"Musai" is Japanese for "witless," which may be intended to go with the Zaku's name association of "small fry/expendable troops". *The origin of the Musai as a civilian ship designed for easy conversion for war closely mimics the real-life re-armament program of Nazi Germany, especially the design of the Dornier D0-17 medium bomber as a fast mail plane. References MS IGLOO Musai Schematic Cover.jpg|''UC Military Ships Progress Series'' cover featuring the Musai as seen in Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO. MS Gundam IGLOO Musai Schematic.jpg|Schematic of the Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO Musai. Ms-06F-risingsun.jpg|Zeon Remnants' MS-06F Zaku II and Musai-class "Mailmer" as featured in U.C. 0096 Last Sun: information and design from Gundam Prismatic Mobiles External links *Musai-class on MAHQ.net *Gundam Unofficial - Page on discrepancy in Musai carrying capacity. ja:ムサイ級軽巡洋艦